The Destitute Teacher

Ok, this is the moment that you have been waiting for. You have been on a shopping spree, been busily printing, laminating, sticking and gluing and now you are ready to... hang your displays! But maybe you are feeling a little bit lost... not quite sure what is needed... and just want to get something up on the walls. I will start from the start (a good place to begin) and will give you a few hints and tips to get you going with a simple display. An equipment list will be at the bottom of the post to help you to assemble your gear. 1. You will probably have four key display areas: Math; Discovery/Topic Studies; Art; Literacy (Literacy can then be split into Reading and Writing). For each area you will need some kind of definition of space- like a background color and borders, plus a title for the display. Stick with easy titles ('Math' will always be Math, whether you are studying fractions or square roots). I like to have each area with its own color scheme if possible. 2...

By now the walls of your classroom are begging to be hung with precious treasures and made beautiful. Ignore it. Wait it out. Thought out a wall display? Keep thinking! This is my fourth year of teaching, and the fourth new classroom I have had to set up. If you do your wall displays now, chances are that your furniture will block some crucial part of one of the displays. If you arrange your furniture and put all your resources away now, you will probably end up moving furniture back out away from the wall in order to reach. Grrrr. Now is the time to tentatively put out your furniture. Arrange the big stuff- library shelves, tote trays, your desk etc. You will be surprised at how long this process takes at first (don't worry, you get quicker at it every term). Don't bother putting stuff on shelves until you are happy with the layout and your wall display is hung. Keep thinking about how you want to decorate. Remember its nice to create a cosy Library corner nook, or a Math ...

Summer holidays are in full swing, but I know all the beginning teachers out there will be getting themselves organised and into their classrooms. So, in honor of this, my first posts of the year will be about getting your classroom environment up and running. I believe that classroom environment is under-rated by many teachers. A welcoming, interactive classroom display hooks students, parents and other colleagues in before you even open your mouth- a big help if you are like me and suffer from repeated 'foot IN mouth' disease. Its very intimidating when you first get those keys and walk in the door. Just take a deep breath, and segment it into steps and you will be fine! Most classes will have their furniture shifted into the middle, so the cleaners can clean around the walls. They then come back again once the furniture is in place (often the last weekend before school starts) to clean again. While your class is all packed up like this, its a great idea to get stuck in...